The manufacture of more and more complex things has been termed by applicant as "degeneration of progress" (JULY 1972 CHEMTECH, page 390), because it entails an increasing waste of effort and resources. Therefore, we should "do and make things more simply, elegantly and cheaply." Having traveled to and on the moon already, peoples' traveling on earth seems far from the ideal. Viewed from today's state of the art it appears disadvantageous: a) to roll on small wheels, when the advantages of large wheels (as tall as a man) were utilized in ancient history already; b) to harness a springy tire to the rigid wheel, in order to suspend both by complex means; c) to manufacture but suspended wheeled or tracked vehicles, instead of fitting a large, stiff V-belt into an unsuspended track-vehicle; d) to utilize complex (even powered) steering means, when said belted vehicle could be steered by its drive and/or brakes also; e) to use the ineffective and polluting gas engine (without employing its as a pump for returning braking energy), instead of non-serviceable, more reliable electric motors, returning energy as generators, not wasting it for idling, and being controllable more precisely; f) to utilize but one small starter and generator each, instead of a plurality of permanent magnet-motors, which can be tucked away easily, need but one complex coil and function as parking brake as well; g) to use archaic batteries, instead of modest counter-rotating flywheel-generators, absorbing and returning energy at each stop and go more readily, and which have been tested in gyrobusses already and which stabilize the vehicle against rocking as well; h) to design the car for its maximum utilization, despite its daily use by a single person for short distances, instead of building nightly rechargeable convertibles, which may be augmented for maximum use with a portable engine-generator assembly for recharging batteries and/or flywheels while driving, parking or resting.
Accordingly, the main purpose of this invention is the simplification of the automobile, i.e., to redesign it so that indispensable parts, such as tires, engine and motor/generator serve multiple purposes, e.g., as suspension, steering, brake, transmission, gear and bumper.
A similarly important object of this invention is a safer vehicle, the ground-contact of which is larger than usual, and even increases automatically while braking, so that fewer people will be killed with it.
A further object of this invention is a more economical vehicle, absorbing energy while braking and parking, which is assembled of but few, handy, standardized units, easy to be manufactured, serviced, repaired, augmented, exchanged, loaned and recycled, but less likely to be discarded (due to their larger size), so that the environment can be protected easier.
It is known already to build vehicles with a pair of lateral wheels, rims or tracks of about the vehicle's or man's height, each supported by at least two rolls rotatably mounted in or at said vehicle's opposite sides, in conjunction with an internal or terminal stabilizer, e.g., a pendulum, gyroscope, wheel, ski or draught-animal respectively. Said wheels, rims or tracks, however, offer either insufficient spring-action, requiring an elaborate suspension for at least part of the rolls and/or the passengers' seats, or the rolls and/or their axles are unsuitably chosen or mounted relative to said rims, e.g., rolls of undue size at vertical or external axles respectively, impeding or unduly forcing the rims' elastic deformation and/or increasing their friction at the rolls, e.g., due to jamming, soiling, load or wear.
According to this invention, however, rims and/or tires are utilized, which are sufficiently large, stiff and light, in order to take full advantage of: a) their large ground contact, opening and circumference for braking, boarding, bridging potholes, gearing, propelling or even their stiffening and stabilizing the vehicle at high speed, due to rising centrifugal and gyroscopic forces; b) the limited elastic deformation required for suspension, by mounting or fusing the tire to a supporter composed and/or acting like an animal's spine or tail and c) their minimum inertia for reducing wear and tear.